NRL Round 5 featured stirring breakthrough wins for previously winless Manly and North Queensland, renewing hopes of a finals push after most fans and critics had drawn a line through their names for 2021.
In the third edition of Zero Tackle’s Top 8, This Warriors Life's Will Evans counts down the best revivals horror starts during the NRL era.
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CHECK OUT WILL's OTHER TOP 8s: The best rugby league wing giants, Miraculous comebacks of the NRL era
8. New Zealand Warriors (2011)
The progress made by the Warriors in 2010 – when they finished fifth – seemed a distant memory as Ivan Cleary’s charges lost their opening three games of 2011. But with the likes of rookies Elijah Taylor and Shaun Johnson forging permanent spots in the starting line-up, the Warriors resurrected their campaign by winning all of their games in May and July.
The enigmatic Auckland-based outfit landed in sixth before producing iconic finals upsets of the Tigers and Storm, eventually halted by a 24-10 loss to the Sea Eagles in the Grand Final.
Parramatta 2009 doesn’t even get a mention?!?!
5 wins from 18 rounds and go on to make a GF… that’ll do me!
I take your point – but this list was based purely on teams that lost a bunch of games at the start, going 0-3, 0-4, 0-5 etc.
The ’09 Eels won two of their first three so I didn’t consider them for this. Absolutely the greatest late-season charge since Souths’ Miracle of ’55 – in fact I put them at No.2 in the ‘Late-season Rallies’ top 10 in my book ‘The NRL Book of Lists’.